# At 80, saxophonist Charles Lloyd finds enlightenment in the groove: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/12/07/at-80-saxophonist-charles-lloyd-finds-enlightenment-in-the-groove-video/
- Published: 2018-12-07T20:07:55+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**“I’ve been drunk with music all my life,” Charles Lloyd muses, “and it’s been 
my spiritual path. And the times that I was knocked off my mooring, I just found
a way to get back up.”**

Lloyd, a coolly venerable tenor saxophonist, flutist and composer, has famously 
been here and gone and back again. Fifty years ago, around the time he was named
Jazzman of the Year by _DownBeat _magazine, he abruptly dropped off the scene, in
search of equilibrium. He found it along the rugged California coast, where he established
a new life, full of healing and contemplation, before rekindling his relationship
with the spotlight.

He celebrated his 80th birthday this year — and released an acclaimed album, _Vanished
Gardens_, featuring singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams with his band The Marvels.
In this episode of _Jazz Night in America_, we’ll get a taste of that collaboration,
along with choice moments from Lloyd’s recent appearances at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

And we’ll join _Jazz Night_ producer and writer Alex Ariff as he pays a visit to
Lloyd’s home and sanctum in the mountains near Santa Barbara, Calif. We’ll hear 
portions of their conversation, as they sit on a bench near the ocean, touching 
on ancestral legacies and present realities. “I’m an elder now,” Lloyd says almost
tentatively, as if still making peace with the idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srYH7wZ0yPU

![Saxophonist Charles Lloyd, who turned 80 this year.](https://i0.wp.com/mediad.
publicbroadcasting.net/p/wbgo/files/styles/medium/public/201812/charleslloyd_4_byd.
darr_wide-1bb111eff73e6c0a16b2b2054d923ae4c14ae616-s900-c85.jpg?w=640)

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